Abstract: The study was conducted with the collaboration and guidance ofDr. D. M. Keats of the Department of Psychology, Newcastle University,Australia. The porpose of this study was to explore how Chinese and Austra-lian adults and children, who have different social and cultural backgro-unds, understand the cenception of intelligence. Children (aged 11 or 12), college students, teachers and other adultswere questioned. In the first stage of the study, the responses wereinduced by the question: What is an intelligent child (or an adult) likeThe answers were classified into three categories: general ability,thinking ability and personality. There were 10 or 11 items in eachcategory. The subjects were then asked to rate and rank the itemswithin each category in terms of the extent of approval and priority ofimportance in the second stage of study. A comparison of the views between the two cultural groupsindicated: 1. There were some common views shared by Chinese and Australi-ans for the characteristics related to intellegence, such as "general abili-ty" and "personality", yet there were substantial discrepancies in thepriority of characteristics in "thinking ability". 2. The construction of intelligence was significantly consistentwithin all Chinese groups as it is within Australian adult groups, b?views differed between Australian adults and children. 3. Generally, the subjects included personality in interpreting andconsidered that personality had a strong effect on the development ofintelligence.

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